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BOTH | Sermon Notes
BOTH.
The world and especially the church is full of Dichotomies. Dichotomy – division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups “Either/Or Thinking”
There are Divine Dichotomies. Meaning that we have a choice to make. God clearly says it can not be both. Life or Death. It can’t be both.
Deuteronomy 30 “I hope that you choose life.” Either or but not both.
Matthew 6:24 Jesus said, “You can’t serve two masters. You will love one and hate the other. You can not serve God and Money.” Divine Dichotomy. It is either/or.
However, today we are going to talk about Dumb Dichotomies. One truth placed against another truth. A pressure situation. We have to deny one truth in order to accept the other.
With the world that we live in you are exposed to many different churches and truths of the Bible. There are so many different varieties and styles.
Rather than embracing the tension, the ambiguity, the versatility and the BIGNESS of what God is doing. You are tempted to go one way or the other.
Today, lets ponder the idea that maybe God is bigger than what you can figure out!
When we find a particular revelation and connect deeply with a particular scripture. It is tempting to set up camp on that text or that characteristic of God.
Thinking that we are really magnifying God by sticking with this one particular attribute or characteristic of God. However, we actually shrink God down to something smaller with our dumb separations.
We create unnecessary dichotomies in methodology or theology rather than embracing the bigness of what God is doing.
God is actually bigger than we think and big enough for BOTH. God is so much bigger than what our minds can shape and conform Him into. The box that we have put him in. When I was a kid we even sang the Song: Little Red Box
You want to play baseball or football? BOTH Do you want to play offense or defense? BOTH Do you want meat lovers or stuff crust pizza? BOTH Do you want 15 or 20 million? BOTH
The Apostle Paul was the Deon of the NT. He had dichotomies put in front of him all the time, and Paul picked BOTH
Your thoughts on this quote
I am not sure who wrote this originally, but I found it in a 1974 sermon from Dr. WA Criswell.
What are your thoughts on it?
“The Father is life transcendent above all; the Son is life imminent, through all; and the Holy Spirit is life individualized, in us all”
Here are some of my thoughts. How do you agree or disagree?
Robin Steele 